MURRAY: Detroit may have seen its better days

By Gregory A. Murray, Journal Register Newspapers

Sunday, March 17, 2013

It is hardly an understatement that Detroit has seen better days. From the seemingly never-ending Kwame Kilpatrick trial to the emergency financial manager drama, the city of my birth has been rocked with a relentless wrenching that has put the entire state at risk. One wonders whether the city has made it through its toughest times. The answer to that is probably the worst times are yet to come.

Governor Rick Snyder’s appointment last week of an emergency financial manager seems to satisfy the immediate thirst of many out-state Michiganders for some form of financial stability for the largest city in the state. However, the size of the problems and the expected draconian solutions promise to keep us on the edge of our seats for months to come.

At a time when the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is under outright attack, it seems incredulous that Detroiters have been stripped of their right to elective representation. There is a deeply held notion that much too much was suffered for the right to vote to see its disenfranchisement based on economic factors. Some liken the situation to a sophisticated 21st Century municipal poll tax. What would Stalin do?

Detroit is not the only city with long-term debt, budget deficits, and unfunded pension obligations, but it is the largest majority minority city in the country run (some would say run into the ground) by Democrats. Now a Republican governor has essentially voided a voter-approved city charter that his own administration approved.

The Detroit Public Schools district has been sliced and diced and now has to compete with an authority that essentially benefits by not having to deal with an operating deficit. The real irony there is that, back in the day, DPS had a budget surplus the year the state took the system over. Teachers are asked to do more with less while serving as surrogate parents to kids whose own parents seem detached, underwhelmed and distracted from their primary duty to raise their children themselves.

Crime is out of control, and police and fire-fighters are supposed to be prevent crime with outdated equipment, low pay and even lower morale. Police are trying their best to get guns off the street, but you know things are bad in the city when the people with guns (and badges) refuse to move back to the city they patrol.

Detroit residents are voting with their feet by moving out here to Macomb County as quickly as they can. The majority of these “immigrants” (or, as my old friend Donald Lobsinger would say, “refugees”) to Macomb County are black. This is not the kind of immigration that Snyder is talking about. Southern Macomb County is already reeling from increased demands on educational, health care, law enforcement and court systems, all of which to some extent may be related to what I call “black flight into white life.”

Even the clergy see the writing on the wall. Detroit’s problem is not that the faith-based community does not have a presence; there are more than 2,000 churches within the city’s 139-mile borders. The problem with Detroit very well may be that there too many churches and too few Christians. More and Black pastors are moving their churches to or setting up shop in Warren, Roseville, Clinton Township and the county’s other cities and townships.

The word on the street is that the streets themselves will be used to express displeasure with Snyder’s measures. Supposedly, tying up I-94 and I-75 were test runs. Imagine trying to get to and from a Tiger’s game at night with these kinds of shenanigans going on. The festivals this year may end up not all that festive. Imagine choking off the exit to Belle Isle after the Grand Prix. Let’s hope sanity prevails.

Everyone in Michigan is a stakeholder for Detroit. The sanctity of home rule and representative government will be addressed by the courts.

Detroiters want to claim that this is not altogether their mess, but they can get themselves out of it. The state wants to claim their fingers are clean, and only they can get Detroit out of a mess not of the state’s doing. Both are wrong.

Gregory A. Murray is a community activist who lives in Clinton Township. He can be reached at gahmurray@gmail.com.